Category Archives: Tips and Tricks

I am in such a good mood because today I am pigging out with Lisa and then TOMORROW I will be at my (surprise!) college for accepted students day:) And meeting all of my new girls. So so excited.

I am starting you off with an “inspirational” Jillian Michaels quote. If you are as obsessed with BL as I am, holla @ me.

“I’m gonna burst a blood vessel in my eyeball…I’m going to burst a blood vessel in my eyeball because of YOU.”

– (the great) Jillian Michaels

Hahahaha.

Don’t make Jillian mad. Get yo burn on, people!

Oh and to clear it up, I am not at the beach🙂 Hahaha it was a picture my grandma sent me to make me jealous. Well it worked.

Recently a few readers have asked how I keep an active lifestyle while balancing my life as a student. So I figured, what’s a better topic when I’ll be going to college in the fall?! (any guesses as to where that is?! I may..or may not…tell you if you’re right)

Read on for my secret stash of how to stay sane (and hot) in times of overload.

Here we go!

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How to Fit in Fitness:

Don’t try to find time, make time. This works like a charm. When you’re looking for room in your day, you’re not gonna find it. Guaranteed. So, decide when you’re going to work out and commit to it. For example, I plan my workouts ahead of time and decide when and for how long I am going to do them. Working out right after school is perf most of the time, so I do that, come home, then eat dinner and do my work! Easy as pie, and endorphinified:) Other days of the week, I meet up with friends to go to spinning, kettlebells, BodyPump, or just to ride the machines for a bit!

Plan ahead. Get your work done ahead of time, or know when you are going to complete it. That way, when you’re blissfully sweating away, you won’t be having a heart attack over the stack of paper waiting for you on your desk:) ^^ Danggg son that kid’s got his work cut out for him

Eat well. Not only does this mean eat nutritiously, but prep your eats ahead of time so that when you’re a starvin marvin, you have some food on hand to tame your hungry beast. For example, smoothie ingredients (protein powder!) are great, and pre-made grains, beans, and pre-sliced veggies are perfect. Oh, and cookie dough bowls.

Get some sleep! Self-explanatory. Get your sleep, and you’ll have more energy and time to get your workout in.
^^ Don’t be That Guy.

Get creative. Run outside, do a BodyRock workout, a fitness or yoga/pilates DVD, whatever floats your boat:) Go to yoga if you’re feeling sassy!BodyRock eats insanity for breakfast.

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So there you have it! Get creative with your workouts, no excuses:)

See you tomorrow from my new COLLEGE! And with my new best friend roomie🙂

I have had the best. weekend. ever so far. Started off with a gorgeous run, a get-together that MAY have lasted past two a.m. and involved Chubby Bunny, brunch with this lady including tons of juice, waffles, and our new food revolution:

Bressert Kale Chips!

In case you were wondering, it’s breakfast and dessert put together. And these are amazing. As we were discussing what to make for brunch, I said, “I wonder if anyone has ever made sweet kale chips?”

So both of our jaws dropped and Bressert Kale Chips were born.

We decided on making Vanilla Cinnamon-Raisin Bressert Kale Chips…

Oh hot darn.

Vanilla Cinnamon-Raisin Bressert Kale Chips

Ingredients:

Kale

1.25 cups cashews, soaked overnight

1 cup water

Cinnamon (1-2 tsp.)

Raisins

Vanilla Stevia drops (about 20)

Maple syrup or agave to taste

Directions:

Blend cashews and water, then add all ingredients but raisins.

Add raisins and stir to combine after blending.

Completely massage into chopped kale with mixture and dehydrate overnight.

Devour.

You cannot even taste the kale in these. It is absolutely redonk, and absolutely delicious. I have no idea why this has never been done before, but I have to say I have never been more impressed with a recipe idea in my entire life.

Oh and we also ate the entire batch of the Chocolate Bressert Kale Chips. Chocolatey deliciousness? Yezzir:)

Chocolate Bressert Kale Chips

Instructions:

1 cup water

1 cup cashews (soaked for a few hours)

20 drops Cocoa Bean Extract (I love NuNaturals)

1tbsp cacao powder (or you could use carob)

1/4 cup maple syrup (local!)

Directions:

Blend cashews and water, then add all other ingredients.

Completely massage into chopped kale with mixture and dehydrate overnight.

Devour.

Ohhh snap!

Or should I say….

Crunch?

Smiles all around:) We ate the entirety of both batches.

Why we are such culinary geniuses, I have no idea.

So besides the fact that we both ate our own weight in kale chips (at least a cup of cashoos each..I wish I was joking), we also had to have some spritzers (no, madre and padre, no need to worry about alcohol).

She made juice in her rockstar GREEN STAR juicer, it is gorg. It included beet greens, dandelion greens, beets, lemon, parsley, green apple, carrot, and celery.

We combined it with Ginger Ale Zevia for bubbliness and to cut the bitterness:) But I am pretty sure it was just another excuse for us to use Zevia.

Since everyone could use a bit more bubbly in their lives.

Most people would say this looks narsty but I would like to disagree and say it looks scrumdidlyumptious. I espech love the bubblies that the Zevia makes. Doesn’t it look like chia seed gel?!

But no brunch is complete without breakfast foods. Like waffles that taste like cake.

Delicious. Very filling. But not for long:) Lisa and I have the same appetite clock, we both were “mouth hungry” as we like to say, and so we had a second brunchy brunch. Another waffle each, except it started as only half:)

We can never eat just one!

Oh and in case you were wondering, kale chips are REALLY good on top of waffles. Like the kind of good when you would put potato chips in your sandwich as a kid. Except WAY healthier!

Zevia, in a wine glass. What, you don’t drink everything out of a wine glass?

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The Big Surprise: My new baby!

The other day, Lisa tweeted that she had a surprise for me. And when it comes to surprises I absolutely LOVE them but I hate waiting to find out what it is!! It drives me semi-crazy, but in a good way.

And Lisa completely made my day year. My babygirl gave me a JUICER!

Lisa has officially won her spot as a bridesmaid in my future wedding. I have never been so happy in my life:)

I have not yet decided what to name her. My Droid is named Lulu, my computer Adele, and my iPod is Celeste. Any name suggestions?

Yup it’s love. Ignore the hair, it may have to do with the fact that I was out until two last night and didn’t exactly shower this morning. No comment.

At least I brushed my hair🙂

Anywho, with this new baby I had to do some juicin’. And it was delicious. I am in love, it is so much simpler than my blender and much quieter. My blender sounds like a monster waking up every morning.

Don’t come within 100 feet of my house any morning between the hours of five and nine, your ears may weep.

My first homemade juice!!

Look at all of those vitamins! I used spinach, celery, carrot, parsley, lemon, and red pepper.

Poifect snack after a long day of cashoo eating:)

The afternoon and evening was spent with one of my biffs chatting and eating salads and a Quinoa-Hummus-Raisin-Balsamic bowl. Praise sweet baby Jesus, I had not had one all day and it tasted SO good:)

Get ready for some more surprises coming soon:) I have exciting things coming in the mail for me and I cannot sit still in my seat, I can’t wait for them to come!!

See you tomorrow loves:)

What are your favorite juice combos?

No idea yet:) Give me ideas!!

Requests for the next flava flavs of Bressert Kale Chips?

We have some exciting flavor ideas coming up, but we would love your suggestions!!

Favorite waffle topping. GO!

Chia seed gel (carob is mah fave), fruit, and almond butter:)

p.s. Did anyone see the moon last night?! Holy man! I have never seen it so big and bright. Absolutely beautiful.

Last night CK got the most views in the history of the bloggy! Honeybunches I cannot even explain to you how warm and fuzzy my heart is right now, can we all have a bloggy sleepover please and eat tons of homemade cookies? More on that in a bit:)

Yesterday I had the honor of being featured on So Delicious Dairy Free’s Fan Page! And there is a SLIGHT possibility there will be a giveaway involved sometime in the near future:)

Yesterday I took Body Pump for the first time in, uh, a year. WHY DID I SKIMP OUT FOR A WHOLE YEAR I missed it so muchhh! And now my hammies are sore as a beeyotch. Glorious. From the Padre, quote: “My butt hurts.” Hahaha that marathoner cried wee wee wee all the way home:)

^^ Got mah game face on.

Don’t be fooled by how tan I look. I am actually super pale, I love my camera! It makes me look less pasty:)

I slept more than twelve hours last night. Much needed, and much deserved. As a student I rarely get enough sleep (in my books I need at least 8 hours), so this was especially special:)

Tonight I will be having din din with one of my favorite blends (bloggy friends), Hollie! Can’t wait to stuff our faces with cookies togeths girl!

I am currently watching The Biggest Loser while blogging. I freaking love Hulu.

I spent the entire night baking. Cookies. Approximately fifty of them. Allow me to explain. I put four times the amount of baking soda necessary for my base cookie recipes, so the Madre said I had “no choice but to quadruple the recipe”. The Padre jokingly said that it would be a TERRIBLE thing to have four times more cookies in the house. I couldn’t help but agree;)

I loved all of your responses to my first vlog!! And I was surprised to find that many of you thought my voice was exactly what you were expecting. Glad I didn’t sound like a man:)

And secondly, I have to thank you all times a million from the bottom of my heart. CK hit record-high views this past Sunday night, and it is all thanks to you, best friends! Thank you so much for all of your love and support, you have no idea how much you all mean to me! ❤

Tomorrow I am going to put up some of the pictures I have received so far, so don’t wait, chickadees! Feel pretty and snapdiddlydoo a photograph!

Bee tee dubs, my raisin burnout didn’t even last half of the day. I was eating half of the container by 10 AM. I think it is safe to say I need an intervention;)

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So, the crazykins title comes from class today. I was sitting and enjoying some cauliflower rice (recipe below:)), and my friend that sits next to me asked, “Are you eating cheese?!”

I pretty much died right there. I was laughing so hard I thought I was actually going to pee my pants.

In order to understand why, you must realize that I can never eat normal portions of anything. I always eat redonk amounts. So picture me eating a GIANT tupperware full of this stuff, coated in tomato goodness and nooch.

So I told him, yes, I was eating a giant tupperware full of cheese.

And since CK has been lacking a tad in the recipe department, I thought I would share this simple, quick, and delicious recipe with you. It is perfect for a quick lunch or dinner, and especially great for a student like me:)

Quick and delicious? That’s my middle name;)

Cauliflower Rice Primavera

Ingredients:

1 head of cauliflower, roughly chopped

1 tomato, diced

Italian seasoning (or thyme, basil, marjoram, rosemary, oregano)

Small handful of fresh basil, chopped

Nutritional yeast (nooch)

Directions:

In a food processor, pulse cauliflower until it resembles rice. Scoop into a large bowl, and serve yourself desired amount.

Mix together the diced tomato and seasoning. Put on top of cauliflower rice.

Sprinkle with nooch and top with freshly chopped basil. Mix it all up, and enjoy!

This was so yummy, and the perfect way to get in my veggies! (except I never really have a problem with that because I am addicted to all things veg)

It reminded me of a way healthier version of my lazy-girl rice “spaghetti” that I make when I have leftover rice/grains and am too lazy to make noodles

Don’t you just love the word “noodles”? Nooooooooodles:)

Edit:After seeing some of the comments, I realized that I didn’t mention the twelve and a half quinoa-hummus-raisin-balsamic bowls I ate with this. By no means is this a complete meal! ‘Tis just the veggie portion. As with every meal, be sure to include modest portions of carbs, protein, and fat.

That is all for today bloggy boos! I have a long day of classes, working out, and hummus-raisin-balsamic bowl eating ahead of me:)

Have a fun Tooooosday!

p.s. Go check out my girl Lee’s bloggity blog post! I am so proud of her, she is spreading the raisin-balsamic loveeee🙂

What is your favorite lazy-girl (or La-Z-Boy) meal?

Quinoa, hummus, balsamic, and raisins, all mixed up in a bowl. I think I am in a food rut:)

What is your favorite way to get in your veggies?

Um, eating them every second of the day! And green monsters/salad beasts. My tummy lurves:)

GOTCHA! You totally thought I was going to say I met the prez:) Sorry kiddos, today is not the day. If I end up going to school in DC though, I might end up seeing the First Lady playing tennis! Or Obama might speak at commencement..who knows;)

H2O duh, and my Droid is charging via a pluggity plug thingymajig the Padre bought a year or so back on a road trip. Best. investment. ever. Go to Radio Shack and get one of these, it is less than $30 and will save you loads of stress over your phone, iPod, laptop, what have you, dying in the middle of a car trip and thinking the world is going to end.

Not that I would know or anything.

The view outside:

JERSEY SHORE, 24 MILES?!

Honey bunches, you can bet your bottom dollar I was begging the Padre to take a detour but he said no. Sorry Mike, we’ll get married another time.

We spent the long drive singing along to Glee (can you pay my bills? Name that song!) I am marrying Blaine, I do not care if he is gay, listening to Hamlet (for Lit, no I do not do that stuff for fun), and talking about my dream of combining nutrition, public health, anthropology, research, and travel internationally. I can’t wait to see where college takes me!

Oh, and we also did our fair share of yelling at other drivers through our windshield (oh yeah, we told ‘em). One guy was a jerkasauraus rex and was tailgating me on a 75 mph highway. Jack. butt.

My sched for the day:

Working out

Eating every raisin I can find

Having one of my besties over for movies, food, and girl talk:)

Memorizing the Hamlet “To Be or Not to Be” speech (the things I do for classes…)

Packing (again)

Eating more raisins

And going to SLEEP

Oh and DON’T FORGET TO SEND IN YOUR MISSION: I FEEL PRETTY pictures! I have gotten gorgeous ones so far, you girls are absolutely beautiful!! I am so glad we are all helping ourselves to feel more special:)

That’s all for this morning loves! It is WAY past my bedtime, and I am about to fall asleep on my keyboard so here are some questiones for you!

What do you eat on road trips? Do you pack food too, or stop on the way? What do you pack/get?

I ALWAYS pack food, but occasionally stop to grab nuts, fruit, something I am dying for (like raisins..bee tee dubs not ONE gas station I stopped at had raisins, so in case you are a crazy raisin lover like I am, you better pack some for yourself!).

What are your favorite road trip activities?

Jamming out to the iPod, Travel Scrabble (I am a pro), and getting on each other’s nerves. Life is good.

Do you watch Jersey Shore? Are you crazy obsessed too?

I am marrying Mike the Sitch. Our children would be really tan and have AWESOME abs.

This is an odd time for me to be blogging…it feels so weird. Rooooooarr.

So, I am going to make this a quick one because I am starting writing this post at 8:41 PM and I am very tired aka I am going to bed as soon as I hit publish. Let’s see how fast I can write this post. Okay ready set GO!

Firstly, I have to thank you all so so so much for all of yourbeautiful comments on my last post!! You have no idea how much it means to me, I cried while I read every single one of your comments, and I will be responding to them as soon as I have a free moment and am not asleepy weepy in my warm bed:)

My Dad read the post and absolutely loved it, and he loved every single one of your comments. I bet you a million bucks he cried while he read them but he would never admit that to me so thank you for making my Daddy’s heart smile🙂

After he read it, he came downstairs and we had the most special daddy-daughter hug moment there ever was. I cried obviously and we talked about our upcoming college trip to D.C. and all of the fun things we will do together like run past the White House every morning. But more on that at the end:)

Also, keep theMission: I Feel Pretty pictures coming!! You are all so beautiful, I cannot even tell you how happy it makes me that y’all are realizing how beautiful you really are and celebrating it! Can we all be best friends and have a sleepover please and talk about food and makeup and men and watch Mean Girls?

p.s. If you are ever feeling down about yourself, not being kind to the Little You in you, or feeling downright sad or bad about you or your body, do NOT hesitate to send me an e-mail!

I love receiving e-mails from you guys and helping you through hard times, it helps me to keep myself thinking good thoughts and it makes my heart so warm and fuzzy to help others! The beautiful thing about blogging is that we can all support each other, we never have to be alone:)

Also, if you ever come to New York State or the East Coast at all for that matter it will happen, I will be sure of it, we will all teleport to the same location and party hardy with tons and tons of candy and raisins.

SPEAKING OF RAISINSthe shortage has been replenished!! You can just imagine how skipdiddlydoo happy I am:)

BUT, unforch I have been having tummy problems and my Madre thinks it is from the sulfites in the redonk amounts of balsamic vinegar I consume every day, which is a valid point I googled it (thank you WebMD). So, I will be going without balsamic vinegar for the next few days and I do not know what I am going to do with myself.

Does anyone know of a balsamic vinegar that does not contain any sulfites?? Please let me know because I am dying, I do not think you understand, I put balsamic vinegar on EVERYTHING. Hummus, salads, grains, beans, anything with raisins, you get the idea.

Oh, and the title came about because as I was eating my third bowl of hummus, buckwheat, and raisins tonight, I realized that it was mostly raisins.

I think I have an addiction people, I need to find a Raisins Anonymous or something this could get dangerous.

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Okay, first things first.

I made popped amaranth!

Yeahhhhhh boiiiii

Shmelled just like popcorn!:) And I love the shmell of popcorn. Yumshky.

(That is what I would sound like if I had a lithp that made “sh” sounds instead of “th”, except I don’t have a lisp I just like to talk like that)

And chickadees, this was embarrassingly easy. I was really intimidated by the idea after reading about it in Brendan Brazier’s Thrive and on The Edible Perspective, but you will laugh when you see how easy it was.

First, heat up a saucepan on medium-high heat. Bee tee dubs, make sure you have a lid or your amaranth will pop all ova tha place, but Imeann if you’re into that kind of thing and cleaning up messes then don’t bother.

Measure out a couple of tablespoons (do it 2 or so tablespoons at a time, it burns easily), pour it in, pop on the lid, and shake the pan back and forth for about 15 seconds.

At this point I turn off the heat and check them to see if they need to pop more, if they do then I turn the heat back on and do another five seconds or so. Usually this is enough time though if the heat is on high enough.

Pour into a tupperware and refrigerate for up to a week!

About to be popped.

Success!

In my cereal bowl, duh.

I mixed some up with chia seed gel, cinnamon, stevia, and hemp milk. And topped with rasps, as per usual.

I really did not like the texture of this. Maybe it was the chia seed gel or the fact that I used hemp milk?

I am used to a more thick, chewy breakfast mixture (I’m looking at you, cookie dough), and this was WAY too liquidy. Icky! Made my tummy feel gross.

But, if you are a cereal person which I SOMETIMES am, but only if it is not soggy, then this is for you:)

I also had the popped amaranth with my lunch, coated in delicious balsamic vinegar (sad face) and tons of hummus and raisins.

It was delicious and crunchy, and added a fun toasty flavor to the mixture that reminded me of sushi rice! Which is weird, but maybe the balsamic added a soy-sauce like flavor.

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Next up, today’s outfit! I actually put effort into my outfit today, surprise surprise, and I even washed my hair. Holy moly wait I made an effort to look good today?!

Don’t get too excited though, this is not going to happen every day;) I had an internship interview after school for nutrition and it went really well:) I am so excited to start it this summer and tell you all about it!

Why I always make this face when I take pictures of myself, I honestly don’t know. I like the way it makes my face muscles feel though, I know I am weird.

Kneeling because my mirror is not up on the wall, it is propped on the floor because I am too cheapo/lazy to mount it on the wall:)

Everything is Forever21 except for the tank top which is Delia’s, and the fuzzy socks which are a la mi Madre🙂 I think she got them at Old Navy though, they are so cute and fuzzy and have hearts on them! They keep my feetsies very toasty in the winter.

Wait breaking news…TODAY IS WAS A WHOLE 48 DEGREES OUTSIDE!! You have no idea how happy this made me…it smelled like spring. You know the shmell that is just so fresh and skippidy and makes you think of Easter bunnies and skirts and sandals? Yep, I smelled the good smell today and it made my day a million times better:)

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Nextly, look at the adorable Valentime’s Day gifts my parents gave me! They are so cute, I was smiling ear to ear when I found these on my placemat in the morning wrapped up in pink wrapping paper. They know me too well:)

Loofah on a stick.

Remember when my loofah broke? Uh yeah, I have been in dire need of a new one ever since. Madre to the rescue!! I love this, and it is eco-friendly which rocks too:)

This guy is a soap genius, and this smells so minty fresh and wakes me up first thing in the morning! Plus the ingredients are natural and fresh, except for the sodium hydroxide, I do not know how I feel about putting an NaOH2 compound on my body because I have no idea what it does but at least I know its formula (thank you AP Biology!).

And lastly, the best. gift. ever.

Yes, those are PINK travel utensils that snap together. I did not know how to contain my excitement, when I brought them to school Tuesday I was showing them off to anyone and everyone. Obviously it is my job to spread the snap-together excitement.

I have no idea how the ‘rents found these, but if you would really like to know just shoot me an e-mail and I will gladly ask the Madre for you:)

Well, this was a carrot that was shaped EXACTLY like a candy corn, and I put it in my pocket to remember to take a picture of it, but instead the jeans went in the wash with the carrot and it ended up like this.

Hahahhahaha, bad blogger:)

But lezzbehonest, this is way more humorous than an oddly shaped carrot. Maybe this is what a carrot would look like if you dehydrated it or raisin-ified it?

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Okay, lastly….

Calling All Bloggers!

The Padre and I will be in the Washington D.C. area on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday of this weekend/coming week for college visits, so if you are in the D.C. area and want to have a bloggy meetup, I would love to have a blogger dinner at Café Green or someplace equally delicious!

Hi!

Chef Katelyn is a blog dedicated to the lifestyle of finding health, happiness, and inner peace through eating, exercising, and living well. I believe that what we put into our bodies, how we use them, and how we choose to enrich our lives directly effect our health mentally, physically, and emotionally. I hope you find some this balance with me while I continue my journey every day :)